Jealous of the Flame

Ambur and Mydnight walked into the upper decks of the Colosseum and leaned up against the railing as Yang and Mercury's duel began. "Alright Yang, show me what you've learned," Ambur said softly.

"Look I know you wanna watch this fight but we should be watching the crowd. This tournament is coming to a close and if the enemy is going to make a move it's going to be soon."

"I know I know...Everyone else is with Spring right now too. Other than Olivier, we may be the only ones watching this match."

As the match got underway the two combatants seemed quite evenly matched. Mercury made just as good use of momentum and Yang did, simply with kicks rather than punches. However Mercury seemed to overestimated himself in the end and turned his back on Yang before the victory bell had been rung. She stood, activating her semblance and within seconds turned the tides and reduced Mercury's Aura to zero. As she began to walk away from her opponent Mydnight heard Ambur begin to hoot and holler, cheering for Yang. He raised his hands to clap but his ears began to ring suddenly. It started off quiet but within moments grew to unbearable amounts, and he sank to his knees.

Through the pain he looked down to the arena and for a moment he saw Mercury stand up and launch a last ditch effort kick at Yang while her back was turned. However before the kick landed Mercury seemed to disappear before his eyes, and reappear where he had been moments before, sitting on the ground. Despite this he saw Yang turn around and swiftly shoot Mercury in the leg before the crowd started to boo her and Atlas drones rushed out onto the battlefield and surrounded Yang.

"Wha...Why did she do that.." Ambur asked, dumbfounded. "Why would she-" Ambur began to say as she turned toward Mydnight, finding him on his knees with his hands clutching his head. She quickly kneeled down and held his head in her hands and forced him to look into her eyes. "Mydnight! What's wrong, what's happening?!"

Mydnight could barely hear her at all. Her voice sounded muffled and far away. He felt as if he was going to pass out. He looked up to the replay display and saw Yang shoot Mercury, defenseless on the ground. All he could manage to do before passing out was point up to the screen and whisper to his partner "That's not what I saw..." Mydnight fell forward completely limp into Ambur's arms. She looked at the massive display and saw the replay again, and then looked back to her partner. She then looked down to the arena and saw a Green haired girl run to Mercury's side, along with a pair of medics who put him on a stretcher and brought him off the battlefield.

"Ambur what happened?" She heard as Olivier came to her side and crouched down with her.

"Yang just attacked that kid after the match was over. I don't know what happened!"

"No I saw that. I mean what happened to Mydnight, he seemed fine earlier," She asked worriedly as she helped Ambur lay him out flat on the ground and checked his pulse.

"When Yang shot him Mydnight got all weird and fainted. He was trying to tell me something right before he passed out but it doesn't make any sense." Once they'd lay him down she began to fan him with her hand and tried to feel his forehead for a fever.

"What did he say?"

"He said 'That's not what I saw' and he pointed to the replay on the jumbotron. He was clutching his head like he had a migraine."

"What do you mean that doesn't make sense, that makes perfect sense Ambur! He means that he saw something that apparently no one else in this arena saw. Maybe he and Yang saw the same thing and that's why she shot him. Go find Yang I'll take care of Mydnight, she's gonna need you."

Ambur stood up quickly and began to move before she stopped in her tracks and looked back down to her partner, her face filled with concern. "If anything happens please call me."

"Don't worry I've got him. As soon as he comes too you will be the first to know," Liv promised

"Thanks Liv," she breathed nervously before she ran out of the arena and back toward the school.

"We'll get out of your hair," Blake said as the rest of her teammates stood up and headed to the door, leaving Yang alone. As the door closed Yang looked to the window. This was the last thing she needed right now. To be alone with her thoughts. After a few minutes Yang saw the members of team JNPR heading away from the dorms before her attention was captured by her uncle, who had somehow managed to enter her room without her noticing. As they began to talk about Yang's mother and how Qrow may have a lead on where to find her they heard heavy footsteps racing down the hallway outside the room. A loud knock came on her door and they could hear heavy panting from the other side.

"Yang! It's Ambur, I need to talk to you!"

"...We'll talk more later kiddo," Qrow sighed as he turned away from her.

"You don't have to leave."

"I got places to be. Besides I think your mentor is gonna chew you out," he snickered as he began to walk toward the door.

"Yang please I have to tell you something. Are you in there?" Ambur said again as she knocked on the door right up until the moment when Qrow whipped it open and Ambur nearly punched him in the chest. "Ah! Oh god Qrow you scared me," she sighed as she looked past him to Yang's discouraged face. "Yang..." She said softly.

"I'll let you two be now," he said as he walked past Ambur and down the hall.

"Can I...come in...?" Ambur asked softly and she saw Yang nod slightly before she came in and closed the door softly.

"Did you come here to tell me I'm crazy too?" Yang asked quietly.

"Well when I saw you shoot the kid I had planned on it but...something changed my mind..."

Yang looked up to the older girl and she crossed the room and kneeled on the floor right in front of her younger counterpart. "What do you mean?"

"What happened out there?"

"I shot a defenseless kid, you watched it happen, you saw it!" Yang said loudly, growing tired of answering the same question over and over again.

"Yang, if you shot that kid for no reason you wouldn't be this upset," Ambur reasoned, taking her friend's hand before her scroll began to ring. She took it out of her pocket and saw that Liv was calling her. She quickly answered and put it on speaker phone. "Liv what is it, is he awake?"

"Ya he just came to and immediately wanted to talk to you, are you with Yang? She's gonna wanna hear this."

Yang, surprised she had been asked for, spoke up. "Yeah I'm here," she mumbled.

Mydnight's was the next voice to come through her scroll. "Yang, I need you to tell me EXACTLY what you saw. The last fight is about to begin and you need to be very specific right now!"

Yang was taken aback by Mydnight's question, "You mean...you believe me? But you were there you saw what I did?"

"Yeah you're right I saw exactly what you did and I saw exactly what Mercury did now stop beating around the bush and tell me what you saw!"

"Okay! I saw Mercury stand up after the fight was over. He said there wouldn't be a next time, and then jumped at me and tried to attack me. When I fired back at him he was on the ground clutching his leg where I shot him. But when everything settled-"

"-The big screen showed that he never attacked you and you shot an innocent kid."

"Wha...did you already know all that?" Yang asked in shock.

"Ambur, that's exactly what I saw happen. It's happening, something's going to happen in this final match I can feel it."

"Mydnight look!" The girls heard Olivier speak up, "That green haired girl that left with Mercury is back in the stands already."

"Emerald?" Yang wondered, "How can she be there? She just left the stadium to be with Mercury in the ambulance."

"Ambur you need to get over here NOW," he said before hanging up on her. Mydnight turned to Liv as he sat up. "Where is Rosa?"

"I left her in Ozpin's office, she could be anywhere right now, why?"

"She's gotta be a part of it, It's not paranoia, it can't be a coincidence." He looked down to the arena and saw Ruby leaving the stands in a hurry. "Liv watch the fight, keep an eye on Emerald in particular." He said before he forced himself to his feet and took off toward the stairs. He had to catch up to Ruby.

His limbs weren't quite ready for the trip however. He kept falling sideways into the walls of the stairwell and he had been so high up in the Colleseum that he'd had to go down several floors before he thought he was anywhere close to the floor Ruby had been on.

By the time he reached the floor she was on he found that the match had ended swiftly. He found his sister kneeling on the ground in tears, assumedly shed for the remains of her robotic friend that were scattered around the arena. He also found Mercury popping his head out of a doorway smiling with delight before he turned back inside, out of sight. Not a moment later the live feed became interrupted and Cinder started her speech.

"Red!" Mydnight said as he rushed to his sister's side and took her arm, lifting her to her feet.

"Mydnight? What are you doing here? What's going on?!"

"Yang is telling the truth. Someone is manipulating the minds of the crowd and the fighters. I fear the same thing just happened to Pyrrha. They rigged the match too, they knew that Pyrrha's semblance would destroy Penny if they made Pyrrha think she was going to die. We need to go."

As he said this however, the Nevermore perched on the roof finally broke through the glass and he watched Jaune run out to try and snap Pyrrha out of her shocked state. They were both blown back as the massive creature slammed down onto the battlefield in front of them. Just as it was about to attack them though, Ruby jumped from his arms and into action. She burst into rose petals and flew across the arena, grabbed one of Penny's swords and stabbed the Nevermore to slow it down.

"Ruby?" Pyrrha choked out.

"Leave her alone!" The young girl screamed at the monstrous Grimm, tears welled in her eyes. The bird lunged at them but became pinned to the ground by several of the students' weapon-filled lockers slamming down into it from the sky. As the students began to collect their weapons from it's back though, the Grimm started to move again. Before the massive beast could get up and return to battle, Sage and Yatsuhashi slashed down at it's throat and sliced it's head off as the body started to fade into shadows.

As Ruby looked down to Pyrrha she found the older girl in tears, trying to come up with the words to apologize for what she had done. "Ruby I...I am so sorry..." she managed to get out, barely able to make eye contact with the younger girl.

"Me too...but it wasn't your fault."

"She's right," the group heard Jaune speak up as he walked to Pyrrha. Mydnight felt a smile creep over his lips as he watched the young man lift Pyrhha to her feet.

'Kid actually looks kind of...heroic,' Mydnight thought to himself, as Jaune finished his short speech. Seconds later several Grimm begin to fly over the roof and down into the arena.

"Mydnight, I need your scroll," Ruby said with a smile and he quickly fished it out of his jacket pocket and tossed it to her. She caught it with ease and in a few short button presses and a few moments of patience, her locker slammed down onto the floor of the arena. As she went to grab it though, one of the Grimm swooped down and landed straight on top of her locker and growled at her fiercely. In only a moment though a large red, black and white blur flew through the air at it, slicing its head clean off. The object clattered to the ground a few feet away. Ruby and Mydnight looked down to the scythe before looking around for whoever threw it.

"Bloody Rose...?" Ruby asked, before she looked to her brother who she found looking away toward the edge of the arena.

"Ambur!" He sighed in relief. Ruby turned to see the amazon standing in the spot Ruby had been in only a few minutes before. Mydnight went to retrieve his scythe from the ground as Ruby retrieved her's from her locker.

Ambur ran over to them and the soon found Olivier, Professor Port and Professor Oobleck coming from around the corner Ambur had come from. "Mydnight we need to get out of here," Ambur said, nearly out of breath. "The entire city is under attack and the White Fang are attacking the school."

Professor Port then spoke up. "Students, I think it would be best for you to leave."

"But we can hel-"

"Miss Rose," Oobleck said quickly, cutting Ruby off, "This day will surely go down in Remnant's history. I would prefer it, if my students lived to tell about it."

Ruby tried her best to swallow her feelings before she gave him a nod. "Let's go!" she said to the group and all the students headed for the cut of the arena.

"Liv, where's the rest of your team?" Mydnight asked as they ran toward the landing platforms. As he asked this he saw her weapon deploy from the inside of her white tank top, the thin telescopic metal rods shooting down her body and over her limbs, the pressure activated nodes growing from the transforming machinery.

"Caroline and Hunter should be at the school, they will be fine, they can handle themselves."

Before Mydnight could rebuttal his scroll began to vibrate and he pulled it out to check. He found a message from Professor Ozpin calling for himself and the other older students to come to the tower as soon as possible. As the group came out of the tunnel and to the shuttle landing area he took Ruby by the arm. "Listen, you all need to get back to the school. Please be careful, Ozpin needs the three of us to go right to the tower."

"What? Why you three?" Ruby asked skeptically.

Mydnight racked his brain for a white lie to tell his sister, hating every second of it. "He just messaged me and asked for the three of us specifically, I don't know why. Please just...stay safe and try not to do anything TOO reckless. Work together," he pleaded with a smile and let go of her before he ran off with Olivier and Ambur following him. Ambur shouted back to her before they were out of ear shot.

"And take care of your teammates!"

Before Ruby could answer she watched the three older students simply run to the edge of the landing platform and jump straight off with no hesitation, her arm re-flexing upward as if reaching for them, shocked that they jumped off.

As the three students approached the tower, falling through the air, Ambur and Mydnight dug their weapons into the side of the tower to slow their decent, while Olivier simply grabbed onto Ambur's free hand and let the amazon catch her. Once inside the building they almost immediately ran into Professor Ozpin who was waiting at the elevator.

"What do you need us to do sir," Olivier asked, very winded.

"I have no doubt that Miss Nikos will be here shortly to receive the Maiden's power. I need you three to concentrate on finding Rosa. If she truly is working with the enemy then she is a perfect candidate to receive the power and she must be kept away from here. I know Amber's assailant is more likely to show up but we can't take any chances here."

"Last we saw her was in your office, do you know where she went?" Liv asked.

"Security showed that after a minute of recovery she jumped out the hole in my window, same as you two, headed toward the dorms rather than the arena."

"Then we'll start there," Mydnight confirmed as they turned to leave. Once out in the courtyard and headed for the dorms he spoke again. "Liv, call Caroline and see if she's seen her."

Olivier took out her scroll and dialed for Caroline, but the phone rang several times with no answer before automatically ending the call. "No answer, we need to hurry," Liv said worriedly as they came upon the dorms, storming through the door, finding the building all but abandoned. They immediately ran to the nearest staircase and up toward their rooms. As they approached them they slowed down in the hallway and Mydnight motioned for them to stop and keep their voices down. He closed his eyes and listened in the silence, trying to see if his wolf ears could detect anyone in their room.

It took only a moment for the smells to hit his nose and when they did, the girls saw his heart sink in the way his expression changed. When he turned to Liv she began to panic.

"Mydnight no don't...don't look at me like that!" She choked out as she stepped toward him, "What do you hear!?" She asked as she started to lose her composure.

"It's not what I hear that's the problem...it's what I smell..." He murmured as he turned back toward her door. "Someone is...dead in there...and it's not Rosa..."

Olivier's heart sank as she ran to her door and shoved her way through it. Mydnight turned away from her as she froze in the doorway, looking down to where the back wall met the floor between their beds. There, covered in their own blood, were Caroline and Hunter. Ambur watched as Liv began to hyperventilate, and tears began to stream down her face.

They were in each other's arms, lain against one another, hand in hand. Like they'd survived the attack and found their way to each other before they'd stopped breathing. Ambur walked up behind Liv and took her arm. She spun her around gently and pulled the short girl into her grasp. "No, no no no it's not real..." Liv began to son.

"Mydnight," Ambur said solemnly. "...Go find her...I got this..."

"Don't have to tell me twice..." he grumbled as he set off down the hallway. He headed back toward the main hall and as he reached the overlooking balcony, he found Rosa standing in the center of the large room looking up at him.

"Ugh...she sent you, of course she did. Too much of a coward to fight me herself," Rosa whined as she ran her hand through her hair and rolled her eyes in disappointment.

Mydnight was silent for a long while, trying to come up with any words to say to her. "You're the coward," he finally sighed out quietly.

"What was that?" She asked, holding her hand up to her ear mockingly, "I can't hear you."

Mydnight put one hand on the railing of the balcony and vaulted himself off of it, falling to the first floor, several feet away from Rosa. "Is this really all because I broke up with you? You would go this far? Just to get back at me?"

"Wow, conceited much wolf boy?" She laughed, raising an eyebrow. "Just because you're too stupid to choose me over that body building bimbo doesn't mean every action I take is because of you."

"Then why," he asked, bearing his fangs, "Why go so far? What are you trying to accomplish?"

"Orders are orders Mydnight, doesn't mean a girl can't enjoy them," she said with a sick smile.

"And who are you taking orders from exactly?"

"Don't play stupid. You know who," She sighed as she took a fighting stance and he saw her blue aura flash around her. "Now are you gonna do something about it or what?" She yelled out, clearly starting to grow impatient. Her bright blue eyes burned brightly in the darkness. She was far shorter than he or Ambur was, her waist length straight pink hair perfect as ever even after a fight. The few bits of her skin that he could see glowed in the moonlight coming from the floor to ceiling windows. Her clothing was stained and absolutely reaked of blood.

Again Mydnight fell silent for several seconds. "So what did it feel like?"

She blinked and cocked her head to the side in confusion. "What?"

"What did it feel like when you killed Caroline and Hunter," he asked, trying to play on her emotions.

"Why do you care?" She asked in disbelief.

"What did Salem promise you anyway? Did she tell you that you'd be a maiden?"

"Shut up and fight me Mydnight!" She ground her teeth together as she raised her hand and shot a massive bolt of her aura at him. Before it landed he swung his scythe at it, slicing it in half and sending the two halves off target behind him, colliding with different parts of the wall.

"Oh what? You can dish out the mind games but you can't take it? Ya know that's what I always hated about you. You're a child," he said as his wicked smirk spread across his lips. Rosa began to shoot rapid fire energy blasts at him.

"Go to hell you stupid wolf!" Mydnight started to use his scythe to deflect the attacks as she grew more desperate to shut him up.

"Struck a nerve did I?" He chuckled before he dodged a larger than normal blast by running to his right in an arc, headed back toward her. He pulled the rip-cord on Bloody Rose, followed by the trigger and the motor began to grumble loudly as the chains began to spin.

Rosa seemed surprised and took a step back in panic. Had she really not expected him to fight back? So much so that she could drop her guard this easily? Mydnight saw his chance and he didn't let up, lunging at her as quickly as he could.

As he swung the massive scythe at her she seemed to snap out of her shock and put up a blue barrier of light between them, projecting her aura to protect herself. However as the chain blade connected with the aura wall it sliced clean through with no resistance at all. Rosa ducked to the left as the blade swung to the right of her head, chopping no less than a foot of her hair off as she tumbled. She rolled to her feet, only to find the blade once again coming down toward her. She pushed off the ground, sending herself into a backflip, and in mid air she charged up a huge amount of her aura, more than Mydnight had ever seen. He saw her eyelids tighten for a moment as she aimed it straight at him. He was ready to push off the ground and dodge the attack but then he saw her eyes dart back up to the third floor balcony. She shook her head and re-aimed the shot to the ground just in front of him. He saw her hesitate and then fire the shot between them on the ground. Seconds went by, it felt like forever, but when the dust settled he saw the main door of the building closing behind her.

"Seriously? She ran away?" He said in disbelief.

"Mydnight!" he heard as he turned to look where Rose's eyes had stopped during her attack. Ambur and Olivier were falling through the air toward him, having jumped from the third floor to come and assist him in the fight. As they landed, Mydnight ran out the front door into the courtyard and looked around quickly before his shoulders sank and he shut the engine down on his scythe. The two girls followed shortly and stopped just behind him. "She's gone…" he sighed.

"What is that?" Olivier asked quietly, wiping tears of rage from her face before she pointed to the top of Beacon tower. Before Mydnight could look, he found his attention fell to his scythe, finding a long length of Rosa's hair jammed up in the blades. As the girls looked up to the tower they saw a massive flash of white light. Mydnight was too occupied removing the bunch of hair from the teeth of the chainsaw to notice. When he held it up before himself to look at it something caught his eye. Beyond the courtyard, in a small grotto of trees he could see something moving beyond the lump of pink hair. When he lowered it from his line of sight he found Rosa staring back at him from behind a tree. It took him a moment to notice that she wasn't alone. A larger figure in a long brown poncho with a hood covering their face was standing beside her, leaning against a tree. The figure held out a bronze mechanical hand, miming a gun at him, before pretending to shoot him.

Mydnight's head began to pound again, as it had during Yang's match, and he dropped to his knees. He looked back up at the figures and couldn't do anything more than watch them as they turned and walked further into the grotto and out of sight. As they disappeared Mydnight fell forward onto the cobblestone walkway and blacked out.

When the girls finally noticed, they found him unconscious, with one hand extended out toward the trees, and the other clenched tightly around a bundle of bright pink hair.